


I need you

by Robin_Hood



Category: Green Creek Series - T.J. Klune
Genre: Angst, Everyone is suffering, Help, M/M, Resolution, background margo? ish? they're petty idk, everyone is blue, much angst, rip everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 10:32:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14186970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robin_Hood/pseuds/Robin_Hood
Summary: Ox could feel when Richard was there, he could feel the hands that were taking Joe apart again, and pushing him back into what he was like before he found Ox, before Ox found him. He could hear Joe’s cries of pain; he could feel the helplessness coursing through Joe’s veins. He felt all of that, but he couldn’t do anything to let Joe know that he was right alongside him. He didn’t know where his own thoughts begin, or where Joe’s started. That was what sent him spiraling.





	I need you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nnooorraa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nnooorraa/gifts).



> I'm sorry this is late, but this is a birthday present for a great person! Just...three days late....

The feeling of Joe’s fur in his hand lingered long after Joe had been pulled away from him and disappeared into the blackness of the forest. Ox himself could barely stand up because of the pain from his wounds, but the pain of watching Joe being pulled, no, yanked from his father by cruel claws hurt more than all of them combined.

He did stand, leaning heavily against a tree and trying to make out the shapes of the wolves in the darkness. Thomas was breathing, but only just, on the ground where Richard had left him.

“Gordo,” Ox attempted to call out to him, but the call died in his throat. Everything had gone so wrong, so fast, despite all the training they had done, despite knowing that Richard was coming, and was coming for Joe.

And they had failed him.

_They had failed him._

_OxPleaseHelpHelpHelp_

Ox froze as he heard Joe in his head; felt him calling for him, calling for help, pulling him towards him because Joe was in _danger_. And Ox couldn’t do anything because his legs wouldn’t move. God, he tried to because this was _Joe_ , but one step sent him crashing onto the floor of the forest.

Carter and Kelly appeared then, their eyes catching on Thomas, Ox, and the lack of Joe.

“Ox, where’s Joe?” Carter asked quietly. Kelly was already panicking, and Ox could feel it spreading through the pack like wildfire.

Ox can’t bring himself to say the words because this is his fault. He was too weak to be able to stop Richard, too weak to keep Joe from being taken _again_. Too weak. He was too damn weak.

Carter makes a horrible sound in his throat and brings his fist into the nearest tree. His shoulders are trembling, and Kelly nuzzles against him, his own eyes filled with tears and anger. They’re so blue.

_Please_

Ox digs his fingers into the dirt, shoving himself up because he has to help Joe, he has to.

Somehow he stands, his feet unsteady as he moves towards the direction that Joe just was, and he was just here. His legs are screaming at him to stop but he isn’t letting Joe, his Joe, his _mate_ slip away so easily.

“Ox,” Gordo appears from the dark trees looking worn out and sad. Mark isn’t too far behind him.

“He needs me,” Ox says quietly, and the rustling leaves almost cover his voice as he pushes himself to move closer, closer, closer. Mark looks away from Gordo, and Gordo looks pained at Ox’s words.

“Ox, there’s nothing you can do. He…we’re too weak right now,” Ox knows what Gordo was about to say. Or he can supply any number of things he might say.

_He’s too far gone._

_He’s out of reach._

_He’s never coming back._

Ox forces himself forward another step, but Gordo is there suddenly, his arms around Ox, keeping him from moving forward. Ox tries to push past him, but Gordo is right. He’s too weak. He’s always been too weak though. Nothing had changed.

Because he was not yet a man, he cried. He cried into Gordo’s shoulder and clenched his hands.

“He’s going to come back,” Mark said quietly, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself of that.

“Is he?” Ox says weakly, pulling himself from Gordo.

Something changed as the words left Ox’s mouth. He could suddenly feel the bond he shared with Joe triple in strength, and suddenly all that was in his head was pain, fear, and desperation. He stumbled back, Gordo’s eyes widening in alarm, but everything was hazy.

Everything was hurting.

All he could hear was Joe in his head, in his ears, everywhere, and he was so scared. Ox gripped his head, trying to ground himself where he was, sitting against a tree with leaves beneath him, and Gordo saying something unintelligible to the others. He could hear all of them in his head, all their pain, their dread.

_OxMateComePleaseNow_

_JoeSonNoNoNO_

_DangerOxHelp_

_ThomasHealGordoHelpNow_

He wanted it to stop, everyone else’s thoughts were so _loud_ in his head, and he could barely hear himself. And then, he couldn’t hear himself at all, and everything went very dark.

That night was filled with songs of mourning and fear.

Ox floated through his dreams, but they didn’t feel or sound like dreams. Sometimes it was watching Joe, other times he was Joe, locked away in a cold dark place that reeked of fear and danger.

_MomDadFamilyBrothers_

_PackPackPack_

_OxMateMateMate_

_HelpPlease_ OwOwOW

Ox could feel when Richard was there, he could feel the hands that were taking Joe apart again, and pushing him back into what he was like before he found Ox, before Ox found him. He could hear Joe’s cries of pain; he could feel the helplessness coursing through Joe’s veins. He felt all of that, but he couldn’t do anything to let Joe know that he was right alongside him. He didn’t know where his own thoughts begin, or where Joe’s started. That was what sent him spiraling.

Elizabeth was blue, blue, blue, Thomas hadn’t shifted since Joe disappeared, and Kelly, Carter, and Mark were angry. Gordo was furious, because this is why he didn’t want Ox involved with the wolves. He knew the pain of tethers, of the bonds, of being so close to someone that you _know_ how they’re feeling, and when they’re in pain, and now Ox was stuck in Joe’s head while Richard was taking him apart.

Gordo did what he could to ease Ox’s pain, but tethers and bonds can’t be silenced by magic. Gordo had known that for a long time now.

The evening after Richard took Joe away, Gordo sat down at the table along with Kelly, Carter, and Mark. Maybe he wasn’t as connected to them as he used to be, but he could still feel their anger pulsing through the room, along with the old sadness from Mark that Gordo forced himself to ignore.

“We have to leave tonight while the trail is still fresh,” Mark stated, and Carter and Kelly nodded. Gordo would argue, but both Ox and Joe were suffering. He couldn’t bear to watch Ox being trapped in whatever Joe was going through.

“I’m coming with you,” he said, and Mark looked surprised. Of course he did. But this went beyond their issues they had yet to work out. This was about saving Joe and Ox.

“Okay,” Mark inhaled deeply, “Okay. You should get anything you’ll need in the next thirty minutes. We’re leaving at sundown.”

Once they left, the house was empty other than Elizabeth, Thomas, and Ox.

Three years

One month

Twenty-six days

Thomas only shifted back into his human form two months after Joe was taken again, only bringing himself to do so after Elizabeth pleaded with him to come back to her. The two of them grieved together, but knew that they couldn’t stay blue because Ox was already so far gone that he was almost black. So they learned to live again in hope.

There were days where is seemed like the only thing about Ox that was actually present was his body. Elizabeth tried to help him through the times where he writhed as Richard hurt Joe miles and miles away. She liked to think that maybe, maybe Joe could feel it through Ox’s bond, that holding onto Ox while he cried helped the pair of them survive.

There were moments of clarity in Ox’s mind at times in the middle of the night, and he would wander into the clearing where he’d watched Thomas and Joe train. He would stay there for hours, wishing, hoping, that Joe would come back to them safely. Sometimes, Elizabeth would join him and lean her head against his shoulder, whispering the same things he repeated in his head whenever his head was his own.

_He’s going to come back._

He would fall back asleep lulled into the belief that Joe was there with him, and Thomas would carry him back inside.

The night before Gordo, Mark, Carter, and Kelly managed to save Joe was the worst out of all the nights, and Ox, let alone Joe, almost broke completely.

All Ox could hear was

_Stopstopstop_

_OxMatePlease_

_NoNoNo_

And pain, pain, pain.

Elizabeth couldn’t hold onto him had called for Thomas to help he keep him on the bed because Joe was pulling, _pulling_ , and Ox was willing to go. Thomas held him onto the bed as Elizabeth gently brushed his hair off of his forehead, whispering the things she was required to say to stay strong. She was terrified.

Morning brought numbness and a terrifying silence to Ox that was nearly worse than the constant pleading. When Elizabeth checked on him and brought him breakfast, he was irresponsive; his eyes blank and shadows lurking beneath them.

She painted blues and desperate yellows in her studio that day, praying that the colors on her canvas could pierce the navy blue that had swallowed the house since Joe had disappeared. It was why she painted, and if she couldn’t soothe with words, she could attempt soothe through her paints. Thomas told her it was enough, and she clung to his words.

Thomas and Elizabeth grew even more worried about ox, who continued to either stare at the ceiling since that one night. He wasn’t blue, wasn’t green. He just…was.

Thomas was the first one to sense when the group returned a few weeks later, and his spirits rose as he sensed Joe’s presence among them. He ran out to meet them, pulling Joe into his chest, tightly, almost afraid to let him go. Joe was so quiet. He had grown significantly, but he was too skinny. His hair was dull, and his shoulders were sloped. His eyes were dark.

"Joe," he whispers, searching.

Joe just looked at him, his face emotionless.

"He's just like he was," Mark said dully. Gordo shoved him and shook his head. Carter shot them a look but stayed quiet.

"He needs to rest," Gordo said tiredly. "How's ox."

Thomas shook his head.

"He...he hasn't said anything intelligible since Joe disappeared."

Elizabeth came out of the house at this point and didn’t ask Joe anything, she just took him gently by the arm and led him inside the house.

"This is a fucking mess," Kelly remarked, and followed Elizabeth into the house.

Thomas pulled Mark and Gordo into a hug, whispering his thanks for bringing Joe back.

“It took longer than we thought it would. I’m sorry we couldn’t get there sooner,” Gordo said quietly, and the corners of Mark’s mouth twitched downwards.

Thomas looked between them.

“I’m just glad Joe is back.”

Elizabeth brought Joe to his room and let go of his arm, standing with him as he slowly looked around, looking like a stranger in the place he had grown up in. He looked back at her, and the blank canvas that met her broke her heart.

"Ox is in the next room, if you want to see him," she said softly, kissing him gently on the forehead.

Ox heard soft foot falls enter the room and turned his eyes towards the source of the sound.

"Joe," his voice cracks as he pushes him up on his elbows.

Joe looked awful, but he's here and he's alive, but he's so blank. Ox reached out to him and waited, because he knows what happened over those three years. Joe slowly, slowly moved towards him, gently taking ox's hand as he sat down next to him on the bed, bringing ox's hand to his face and breathing in his scent. Ox could barely believe that joe is back.

It’s still quiet, but there is relief spiraling through Joe’s form.

"You're here," Ox breathed, slowly sitting up and making sure to keep a comfortable distance between the two of them. Joe nodded slowly and keeps breathing.

_Ox_

It’s quiet, but ox can feel it.

Ox's throat was tight as Joe turned the eyes that were once so full of light towards him.

"I'm here,” Ox whispered.

_Safe…Ox…Home_

_Home._

 


End file.
